Jay Leno says he’s on Jimmy Kimmel’s side as he predicts what will happen to canned late-night host
Late-night legend Jay Leno has weighed in on the abrupt suspension of Jimmy Kimmel following comments the host made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
‘I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side on that one,’ he told reporters on Thursday, adding that he’s ‘for free speech.’
The former Tonight Show host predicted that Kimmel would weather the storm, which erupted after the host said that the ‘the MAGA gang’ is trying to paint Kirk’s suspected killer ‘as anything other than one of them.’
‘I think Jimmy will land on his feet. He’s a talented guy. He’s funny. And let’s see what happens,’ Leno said. ‘Maybe he might be on in just a couple of weeks again. So, we’ll see.’
The veteran host added that ‘you don’t get cancelled saying popular things.’
‘Usually it’s the truth that winds up getting [you] cancelled, so we’ll see what happens,’ he said.
Leno was blunt when addressing critics who praised Kimmel’s suspension.
‘It’s a comedian talking. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it… Let the people decide,’ he said. ‘If people like a show, it stays on the air. I mean, it’s as simple as that’.
Jay Leno said that he was ‘on Jimmy Kimmel’s side’ following news that his late-night show had been suspended
ABC parent company Disney decided to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! ‘indefinitely’ after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened action against the network over the host’s remarks about Kirk’s accused assassin, Tyler Robinson.
‘The MAGA gang are desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,’ Kimmel said during his Monday monologue.
‘In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.’
He then cut to a video of Donald Trump talking to reporters, where he answered a question about how he was handling Kirk’s death.
When asked how he was holding up, Trump responded: ‘I think very good,’ before directing the reporter’s attention to construction on the White House ballroom.
‘He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,’ Kimmel joked.
‘This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.’
The backlash to Kimmel’s suspension has been swift, with many current and former late-night hosts rushing to his defense.
Leno made the remarks after attending a ceremony honoring journalist Chris Wallace’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The veteran late-night host sat at the Tonight Show desk from 1992 to 2009 and then again from 2010 to 2014.
Kimmel debuted on late-night in 2003, going up against industry titans like Leno and David Letterman
He took over the show from Johnny Carson and returned for a second stint after Conan O’Brien tried his hand at the gig for one season.
Kimmel debuted on late-night in 2003, going up against industry titans like Leno and David Letterman.
Letterman, who passed the Late Show torch to the now-canceled Stephen Colbert, also defended Kimmel at The Atlantic Festival on Wednesday, calling the suspension a ‘misery.’
Kimmel’s current late-night competitors, Colbert, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers, also came to his defense and trolled Trump for pushing ‘censorship’.
